Liberty Tip Tops Cards
It doesn’t take good plays as much as good athletes.
Liberty used a good play and a great athlete to pull out an amazing 21-17 win over Waitsburg in the quarterfinals of the State B-11 football playoffs Friday night at Lampson Stadium.
Junior receiver Jake Holling tipped a pass to himself and then outran the Cardinals defense for a 58-yard scoring play with 16 seconds remaining.
“We were just trying to suck the safety over and run a guy out the backside,” said senior quarterback Jeremy Engle, who threw the ball to Holling at about the Waitsburg 35. “It didn’t really work, but we ended up with a good play out of it.”
Holling was lined up at tight end on the right and slid back to the left. Engle threw back to his left and a Cardinals defensive back went for the interception but missed by inches.
“They didn’t fall for it as much as we hoped,” Holling said. “I jumped up to try to avoid an interception and it popped up into the air and it just fell back into my hands. …
“I tipped it to myself but not on purpose, I was just lucky that way.”
That the ball was close enough to be caught was amazing, considering the howling crosswind, which moments later blew a referee’s hat over the fence.
“Once the ball was tipped we had a couple kids break on it,” Waitsburg coach Jim Sharkey said. “He’s a talented receiver, we saw it on film, he made a great play. We knew we weren’t going to catch him once he got behind us.”
That the Lancers (9-2) had a final chance was surprising. In seven possessions prior to Liberty’s winning touchdown, Waitsburg (7-3) had failed to get a first down just once.
But with just over 6 minutes left, the Cards were forced to punt. The wind helped hold the kick to 14 yards, giving the Lancers the ball at their 42.
One play. One miracle.
“The play we ran is the play Michigan scored on the (Washington State) Cougars, twice, in the Rose Bowl (last January),” Fletcher said. “They didn’t have to tip it, their guy was wide-open. That’s where we got it, in the paper in L.A. after the Rose Bowl. We ran it about four times in the season. It worked against Odessa, we scored the winning touchdown, he was wide-open.”
Liberty led 14-10 at halftime, thanks to two short scoring runs by Brad Wiman. On the last one, however, 1:16 before halftime, Wiman pulled his right hamstring and sat out the rest of the game.